Roni Bhakta

Contract Backend Engineer at EDRLab, the laboratory that oversees Readium and Thorium Reader (operated under the same organization across separated project scopes). Building two flagship services: the global OPDS 2.0 Catalog Registry (and its web administration portal) so readers and libraries worldwide can discover OPDS 2.0 catalogs inside Thorium Reader, and the Readium Speech Server, an open text-to-speech server for Thorium Readers and web reading platforms powering read-aloud narration in Thorium Web.

Contract engineer at the Internet Archive working across both the core Open Library platform (internetarchive/openlibrary) and the ArchiveLabs ecosystem:

• Open Library Core (internetarchive/openlibrary): Built the Trusted Book Providers (TBP) acquisitions database layer and feed registry, the automated Better World Books daily OPDS 2.0 catalog importer, borrowable ebook search mode, and direct PDF & EPUB open-access links in Open Library's search API.
• Open Library OPDS 2.0 & Reading Services (ArchiveLabs): Architected Open Library's official OPDS 2.0 catalog service (opds.openlibrary.org) and co-maintained pyopds2_openlibrary & pyopds2 to power reader.archive.org across millions of books, alongside Public Readium Service (prs) support for Thorium Web.
• Lenny Ecosystem (ArchiveLabs/lenny & lenny-app): Lead the Lenny platform, Lenny Admin Dashboard, and pyopds2_lenny, connecting directly to Open Library so libraries can install their own instance, match bulk EPUB uploads to Open Library editions, and share their books over OPDS feeds without subscription lock-in.

Selected as a GSoC 2025 Fellow at Internet Archive, mentored by Michael E. Karpeles (Mek), Program Lead of Open Library. Co-created Lenny from scratch with my Mentor: designed core lending flows, database schemas, OPDS feeds, OTP auth, and in-browser reading. Shipped a one-step install script that brought sidewalk libraries online with 800+ open-access ebooks.

Working closely with journalist, editor, and information activist Maria Bustillos (founding editor of Flaming Hydra, Popula, and The Brick House Cooperative). BRIET supports ongoing work on Lenny so libraries can own their digital books rather than rent them. Alongside demoing Lenny instances to partner libraries and installing it on their servers, over the past two months I stepped in to directly handle and engineer briet.app with the BRIET team, connecting libraries with us to adopt Lenny.

Selected to participate in Stanford PhD research study on how AI coding tools affect code review and collaboration in open source software development. Contributing to 4 issues in large OSS repositories, submitting PRs, and addressing reviewer feedback.

Core engineer and maintainer across both Internet Archive (internetarchive/openlibrary) and ArchiveLabs repositories powering Open Library:

• Core Open Library Platform (internetarchive/openlibrary): Built the Trusted Book Providers (TBP) acquisitions database layer and provider feed registry, engineered the automated Better World Books daily OPDS 2.0 incremental importer, added borrowable ebook search filtering (mode=ebooks), exposed direct PDF & EPUB open-access links in search.json, and shipped mobile UI and security fixes across openlibrary.org.
• Open Library OPDS 2.0 & Reader Infrastructure (ArchiveLabs): Lead architect of opds.openlibrary.org (openlibrary.org/opds) and co-maintainer of pyopds2_openlibrary & pyopds2 — serving millions of Open Library editions with faceted search, language facets, curated shelves, borrowable availability checks, and Memcached caching to power reader.archive.org, plus Public Readium Service (prs) integration for Thorium Web.
• Lenny & Open Library Integration (ArchiveLabs/lenny): Connected Lenny, Lenny App, and pyopds2_lenny directly to Open Library for automated EPUB-to-edition matching and OPDS catalog harvesting.

Core maintainer across the ArchiveLabs open-source ecosystem at the Internet Archive. Co-creator and lead maintainer of Lenny, Lenny App and the Lenny Website, lead architect of Open Library's OPDS 2.0 catalog service powering reader.archive.org, and maintainer of the Python OPDS 2.0 libraries (pyopds2_lenny and pyopds2_openlibrary) used across Internet Archive projects.

Core maintainer across EDRLab and Readium. Building the global OPDS 2.0 Catalog Registry built into Thorium Reader worldwide, its web administration portal, and the Readium Speech Server powering read-aloud narration in Thorium Readers.

Founded GDGC AGPIT and led a tech community, organizing 5+ workshops and meetups, impacting 450+ students with hands-on tech exposure to GCP (Google Cloud Platform). Increased student engagement in emerging technologies by 60% through events on API Design, cloud computing, LLMs, FSD, and real-time systems. Collaborated with 3 external institutions to expand networking opportunities for tech enthusiasts.

Founded AGPIT MLSA and led a tech community, organizing 2+ Workshops and In-person meetups, impacting 260+ students with hands-on exposure to Git, GitHub & Azure. Increased student engagement in emerging Microsoft technologies by 40% through events on GitOps, Cloud, LLMs, FSD, Algorithms and Docker. Collaborated with 4 external institutions to expand networking opportunities for tech enthusiasts.

Served as a Campus Ambassador for E-Cell IIT Bombay, in collaboration with Physics Wallah. Gained access to valuable resources like financial literacy and coding courses, along with internship opportunities. Contributed to E-Cell's success and gained valuable experience, ranking 80 out of 2108 students.